Adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming is used in streaming multimedia over computer networks. While in the past most video streaming technologies utilized streaming protocols such Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) with Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), adaptive streaming technologies are almost exclusively based on Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and designed to work efficiently over large distributed HTTP networks such as the Internet. ABR streaming detects a user's bandwidth and central processing unit (CPU) capacity in real time and then adjusts video stream quality accordingly. An encoder is used in ABR streaming that can encode a single source video at multiple bit rates. A player client switches between streaming the different encodings depending on available resources.